Minecraft Tips
The following is a short collection of helpful tips and tricks for Minecraft. If there is a tip or trick missing, feel free to add it. Most of these tips apply to Survival Mode, as players can easily get any item or block, and are invincible in Creative Mode. The Don'ts of Minecraft *'Try to avoid Sprinting and excessive Jumping in one's first days of survival'. Sprinting and jumping increases a player's exhaustion level more than ten times compared to walking, and therefore will have a serious effect on their hunger bar. *'Don't eat Rotten Flesh, Raw Chicken or Pufferfish'. They all have a chance of giving a player the Hunger Status Effect for 30 seconds, as well as Poison and Nausea in the case of the pufferfish.If you insist on eating these items,make sure to carry a Milk bucket with you (if there are no other food sources). *'Don't venture too far from one's shelter without remembering or marking its location in some way'. Take a screenshot of its location (coordinates) with the debug screen open (achieved by pressing ), build a tower with a lit landmark, or make a compass. Another way to avoid forgetting a shelter location is to create a line of torches from one's spawn point to the shelter. Keep in mind, however, that this will use up large quantities of coal and sticks to make torches, depending on how far away the shelter is. *'Don't try to sleep in the Nether or the End'. This causes the Bed to explode and sets the landscape around it on Fire, likely killing a player who tried to sleep in it. However, in the case of the End, it is possible to take advantage of this and damage the Ender Dragon. *'Don't dig straight down'. Never! A player is more likely to fall into a cave system, ravine, lava or Dungeon, taking fall damage or dying in the process.Instead of digging down by 1 block,do this by digging down in a 2x1 way and stay in the middle on where you are digging so you can see what's under. *'Don't dig straight up'. Digging straight up can cause one to unexpectedly break through the floor of an area filled with Water, Lava, or hostile Mobs. One could also cause large amounts of sand, red sand, or gravel to fall on and suffocate them, but this is easily countered by putting a torch at one's feet. *'Avoid carrying a Bucket filled with lava in the action bar'. There is the chance a player could accidentally use it and end up burning themselves, destroying all items in their Inventory and losing all of their accumulated Experience if they die. But, in case of wanting a long lasting fuel alternative,lava buckets may be neccessarily kept in the players inventory,but should always refrain from placing the item in their hotbar. *'Don't take risks when mining. '''Jumping from one side of an underground ravine to another is very dangerous. A player will most likely miss and fall into lava or take fall damage, resulting in a loss of all their items and experience. If there is Diamond Ore nearby, don't be careless in trying to reach it. Instead, make sure the diamonds are in a safe position, with little or no risk of taking damage or losing the diamonds (i.e. if lava is underneath or on the side of the ore). *'Don't shoot your bow straight upward'. If an arrow is shot directly upward, it may fall back down and injure or kill the player. *'Never venture far away without the essential items'. These essential items include Wood Planks, building blocks, a Pickaxe, plenty of Food, a Sword, some quality Armor, a Bow, and plenty of Arrows. *'Don't drink base potions'. These base potions (awkward, mundane, thick) have no effects on the player and will instead consume a possible ingredient for a very valuable potion (in the case of the awkward potion). *'Never go out without torches.' Even if it's daytime, If you get lost, You may not be able to find your way home. Another way is coordinates. As long as you remember your coordinates, you can find you way home. *'Don't venture of the night unarmed.' This is especially the case when the player begins the first night.In case of an absence of a bed,the player must stay inside their base until daytime comes.You must have proper equippment when venturing of the night for the sake of hunting hostile mobs. Manage One's Resources Wisely *One can smelt wood blocks into charcoal, which can be used in place of coal. This is helpful if a player has a difficult time finding naturally-occurring veins of coal. *To get more torches (if a player has 1 coal and 20 wood) it is best to smelt the wood with the coal first. Instead of getting 4 torches from 1 coal, they will obtain 80 torches from 20 charcoal. *Gold tools mine/dig/chop faster, but have the lowest Durability. Refrain from using gold to make tools, and use iron instead. Save any gold to make Golden Apples, Golden Carrots, or Glistering Melons. These will be highly useful when facing boss mobs, taming certain animals, or brewing certain Potions. *Obsidian, Cobblestone, and Stone are created when lava and water come into contact with each other. Obsidian is created when water touches a lava source, and cobblestone is created when flowing water touches flowing lava and vice versa. *One can use lava in a bucket to fuel their furnace, but lava is not renewable. This will heat the furnace for 1,000 seconds. This is a cheap alternative to coal if one has a source of lava readily available (ex. accessing the Nether through a nearby Nether Portal or if there are nearby lava pools) . *Build an infinite water source if water is scarce near a player's shelter. *Gather and plant multiple Saplings if wood is scarce near a player's shelter. *Do not turn all wood logs into Wood Plankss, or all Bones into Bonemeal. These can quickly fill up one's inventory, and a player may eventually wish they had saved the raw resources for something else. For example, logs of wood can also be turned into charcoal, or used as a more decorative building material. Bones can be used for taming wolves as well. *If a player is living in a Village, they should try to save coal to trade with Villagers for Emeralds. *During the first or second day within the overworld, start creating a sustainable source of Food. Break lots of Grass, until some Seeds are obtained. At this point, craft a Hoe, using it to till the soil and plant the seeds close to shelter. Clearing a plot of soil directly next to water will increase production. Also, if a player is running out of hunger points, they can kill a Skeleton and use its bonemeal to instantly grow their crops. Additionally, if a character is desperate, zombies can be hunted for their rotten flesh. *Never focus on making a house on the first day (unless it is very small). Instead, after you have gathered resources, make your shelter by digging into a mountain or underground. Always Be Prepared *Always carry wood in case of an emergency. It is used in many essential survival-related items. *Always have a weapon before leaving a shelter at night, if the game's Difficulty is set to anything other than peaceful. *Always carry a bucket full of water, if one can spare the Iron. It can save a player from fall damage, lava damage, fire damage, and can give one a lift by creating a waterfall. *When planning a mining expedition for an extended period of time, bring lots of wood in order to make a Chest, Crafting Table, or Furnace as needed. *Always keep tamed wolves around, to avoid being attacked. To tame a wolf, feed them a bone or two. Feed them any type of meat besides fish to heal or breed them. *If possible, try to keep one or more tamed Cats around, as Creepers will not go near them. To tame a cat, feed them with fish. Handle Mobs Strategically *Avoid staying outside at Night, with the exception of a treehouse, unless a player has at least a stone Sword and some armor. *Avoid getting too close to a creeper, unless one has at least an iron sword, and there are no other mobs nearby. *Nighttime is a very convenient time to mine if a player is not out monster hunting. *Always use torches or other forms of Lighting in a player's shelter or mine to keep hostile mobs from Spawning. *Never take a skeleton head-on unless a player has at least a full set of Iron Armor and/or a Shield. *When you first start, try your best to avoid Creepers and Endermen. The most recommended tip for fighting Endermen is that the latter can't go through the space that is lower than 3 blocks ( a player can go through a space of 2 blocks high, but Enderman can't). Stay right behind that hole and use a melee weapon to kill Enderman for an Ender Pearl (avoid using a Bow for Endermen because these can teleport away before the projectiles have a chance to hit them). *Once you are a bit more experienced, try using a Creeper's explosion to your advantage to damage other nearby hostile mobs (without killing yourself of course). You can also use a Shield to negate the explosion damage completely no matter what Difficulty. *If you find yourself in a situation that requires one to knock back an enemy, like pushing a creeper away, splitting Mobs up, or pushing a mob into Lava or Water, you can sprint while you hit the mob for bonus knockback. Build One's Shelter *During Daytime, take careful consideration of building a shelter. A 7-block wide, 4-block tall structure is a good start. *If one needs a quick shelter, build a treehouse. It keeps a player safe from most mob attacks. *When building a castle-like structure, take into consideration the time and expense of building a moat trap. *If one has many structures, connect them with rails so a player can quickly and easily travel between them by riding in Minecarts. Add walls and a ceiling to stop mobs from wandering onto the track. *If one is surrounded by hostile mobs at night and need to quickly escape, quickly dig three blocks down, jump in and patch up the hole above a player (be careful that one does '''not' use Sand, Red Sand, or Gravel because they can fall on top a player and suffocate them!). *Build a shelter as soon as one spawns in a new world. A compass will lead a player to their house with ease. This is especially useful in the Bedrock Edition, which lacks the debug screen. Category:Guides